(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (February 10, 2015) — Human Rights Foundation (HRF) is delighted to announce Danilo “El Sexto” Maldonado Machado’s first art show in the United States. El Sexto, a Cuban graffiti artist and activist, will showcase his work in an exhibition entitled “PORK,” which will take place at Market Gallery in South Beach, Miami, from February 26 to March 16.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (December 14, 2015) — Human Rights Foundation (HRF) met with Cuban artist and dissident Danilo "El Sexto" Maldonado last Tuesday. After being imprisoned for ten months, without trial, for creating art that Cuban authorities considered "defamatory," the graffiti artist arrived in New York City to meet with HRF staff, including HRF chairman Garry Kasparov.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (October 14, 2015) — On the fourth anniversary of her passing, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) invites you to celebrate the life and legacy of Laura Pollán, the founder of Cuba’s Ladies in White, by watching this interview from 2010. HRF volunteers filmed this only a few months prior to Pollán’s abrupt and mysterious death in a Havana hospital. This short film is one of the last filmed appearances of Pollán, and was made at a time when the Cuban dictatorship had a strict travel ban on dissidents — a policy that only changed in early 2013.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK. – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) calls for the release of Cuban graffiti artist and activist Danilo Maldonado Machado, best known as El Sexto, who has been arbitrarily imprisoned for eight months in the Valle Grande prison, located west of Havana.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the lawsuit for “moral damages” filed by the president of Venezuela’s National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, against three independent media outlets: La Patilla, El Nacional, and Tal Cual. In the case of the digital newspaper La Patilla—the only one so far served with the suit—Cabello is demanding $365 million in damages. The lawsuit arose after the Venezuelan media outlets chose to reprint an article originally published by Spanish newspaper ABC last January. The article in ABC reported that Cabello’s former head of security had accused him of being the leader of a criminal drug trafficking ring.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the harassment and threats made by Cuban state security agents against Gorki Águila, lead singer of the anti-dictatorship rock band Porno para Ricardo.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- To mark the third anniversary of the death of Cuban dissident Oswaldo Payá, the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) published a legal report today highlighting the inaccuracies and inconsistencies of the official government investigation following Payá’s death in 2012. HRF has documented numerous due process violations, including damning witness accounts, a grossly inadequate autopsy examination, and other key pieces of evidence that were overlooked by the Cuban judicial system. HRF’s report concludes that the “evidence, which was deliberately ignored, strongly suggests that the events of July 22, 2012 were not an accident, but instead the result of a car crash directly caused by agents of the state.” HRF will present the report today at Georgetown University. Payá’s daughter, Rosa María, will be in attendance.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (March 18, 2015) – Prominent Yemeni journalist, press freedom advocate, and whistleblower Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani was assassinated earlier today by unknown gunmen outside of his home in Sanaa. Al-Khaiwani, who spoke at the 2010 Oslo Freedom Forum, was one of Yemen’s most effective journalists. He endured years of harassment, kidnappings, and death threats in retaliation for his outspoken criticism of Yemen’s 30-year dictatorship and his exposés on government corruption. His son, the writer Mohammed al-Khaiwani, witnessed the attack, in which several men on motorcycles opened fire on his father and then fled the scene.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- New York. – The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the systematic attacks on press freedom and the climate of self-censorship in which independent media operates as a result of government actions in Ecuador. The Organic Law of Communications (LOC), enacted in June 2013, restricts the type of information that can be broadcast and published by the media. The enactment of the LOC—combined with the introduction of government institutions with the legal authority to monitor, intervene, control, and impose penalties on media—has led to more than 100 legal proceedings against journalists, the shutdown of the print edition of at least four newspapers, and a looming threat to other media outlets that they must follow the rules or close their doors.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK (July 8, 2014)—Directorio Democrático Cubano (DDC) and the Human Rights Foundation (HRF) invite you to join in a symbolic act of peaceful protest in honor of the 20-year anniversary of the “13 de Marzo” tugboat killings. On July 13, 1994, the Cuban government murdered 37 Cuban citizens as they attempted to escape the island aboard the tugboat 13 de Marzo. The gathering will take place Thursday, July 10, at 12:00pm EST, outside the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Cuba to the United Nations, located at 315 Lexington Avenue in New York. Human rights activists, civil society representatives, and members of the Cuban exile community will gather in front of the mission to observe 20 minutes of silence for the 20 years that this crime has gone unpunished.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK. - The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) deeply regrets the passing of Ramón José Velásquez Mujica, the Venezuelan statesman and author. A member of HRF’s International Council, Velásquez was a remarkable man with many titles, including former president of Venezuela (1993-1994). He passed away yesterday, at his home in Caracas, at the age of 97.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK. —The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the brutal assault of Cuban journalist Roberto de Jesús Guerra Pérez by government agents. The attack on the founder and director of the Centro de Información Hablemos Press (CIHPRESS) took place last Wednesday, June 11, in Havana, while Guerra was on his way to the embassy of the Czech Republic to use the internet. An unknown man intercepted and attacked Guerra without warning, punching and kicking him in his head and face, and leaving him with a broken nose, as well as cuts, scrapes, and bruises all over his body. The attack continued as Guerra was grabbed violently by the neck and thrown to the ground. The attacker used an unidentified sharp object to inflict wounds on the journalist’s head and stomach.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK. —The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the torture of students Marco Aurelio Coello and Christian Holdack by agents of the National Bolivarian Police of Venezuela. Coello and Holdack have been held in arbitrary detention since February 12, 2014, for their participation in student demonstrations on Youth Day in Caracas. They are accused by the Venezuelan government of perpetrating the crimes that opposition leader and prisoner of conscience Leopoldo López is charged with organizing. No evidence has been presented against Coello and Holdack.

(www.miscelaneasdecuba.net).- NEW YORK. The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) strongly condemns the harassment suffered by Ecuadorean journalist Betty Escobar in New York City, and by her family in Guayaquil, Ecuador, just days after she was lambasted by President Rafael Correa during his weekly TV broadcast as a “hater” who “slings mud from New York.” After receiving threatening messages, Escobar filed a complaint with the New York City Police Department and with the district attorney’s office in Guayas, Ecuador.